Drop on demand ink jet technology for producing printed media has been employed in commercial products such as printers, plotters, and facsimile machines. Generally, an ink jet image is formed by selective placement on a receiver surface of ink drops emitted by a plurality of drop generators implemented, for example, in a printhead comprising a stack of metal plates having fluidic chambers and channels formed therein (commonly referred to as a jet stack assembly). Ink is stored in an ink reservoir and loaded into the printhead assembly through ports in a diaphragm plate on the back side of the printhead assembly.
In printhead assembly manufacture, ports are formed in the diaphragm prior to incorporation of the diaphragm into the jet stack assembly. Ports typically are formed by etching through the diaphragm.
Some printhead assembly manufacturing methods may require that the diaphragm have no open ports during the processing of the printhead.